One-Armed Horse • Barbara Macz

One-Armed Horse

Barbara Macz (b. 1993)

One-Armed Horse is a digital piece composed using a PlayStation DualSense controller as a MIDI controller. It responds to Adam’s charmingly awkward black-and-white photograph in which three men examine a chalkboard diagram of a horse’s knee, while a real horse stands in the foreground. An arm with a lasso enters the frame at just the right angle to make it appear as though the horse is holding it. Glitchy textures, irregular rhythms, and galloping horses echo the photo’s offbeat composition and unintended humor.

Image: Ansel Adams, UCD.22.7, May, 1966/2024. Scan from original negative. Collection of the California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTS, 1987.0027.6.UCD.22.7